Disappearing chapters problem

[Berzelius]

I have tried adding chapters to project for the first time but I seem to be running into problems.

The project, a slide show, is 15 minute long which I have rendered as an mpg file and to which I wish to add about 8 chapters. I have no problem in adding the chapters and naming them and the chapter menu is listed. However, when I go into Preview there is no sign of the chapters. On starting the preview the project goes straight from the top level menu to starting the slide show with no sign of the chapters. The same thing happens when I burn it to disc; there is a top level menu showing the mpg file which then goes straight into the slide show.

So, where have all my chapters gone? I'm obviously going wrong somewhere but, for the life of me, I can't see where. The manual is not really much help.

I have VideoStudio 11 running under Win XP/SP2.

[Ken Berry]

First, have you updated your DirectX with the November 2007 patch available on the Microsoft DirectX website? Definitely apply the patch and ignore the fact that your DirectX version will remain 9.0c -- it will definitely have changed with the patch. And it seems to correct most (all?) of the problems of things disappearing in the burning module of VS11/11.5 for the users who suffer these problems.

Next, which menu template have you selected? Anyway, if you click on the Play arrow/button, it will start and play the main menu i.e. the entire video. However, to get into the Chapter menu page you click on the thumbnail or title of the main clip. That will then open the first menu page which will contain as many thumnails/titles as allowed by the selected template. And over in the right hand side there should be something like 1/3 which indicates how many chapter menu pages there are. And you navigate to them using the double arrow which is usually down at the bottom of the menu page somewhere...

[Berzelius]

First, have you updated your DirectX with the November 2007 patch available on the Microsoft DirectX website? Definitely apply the patch and ignore the fact that your DirectX version will remain 9.0c -- it will definitely have changed with the patch. And it seems to correct most (all?) of the problems of things disappearing in the burning module of VS11/11.5 for the users who suffer these problems.

Next, which menu template have you selected? Anyway, if you click on the Play arrow/button, it will start and play the main menu i.e. the entire video. However, to get into the Chapter menu page you click on the thumbnail or title of the main clip. That will then open the first menu page which will contain as many thumnails/titles as allowed by the selected template. And over in the right hand side there should be something like 1/3 which indicates how many chapter menu pages there are. And you navigate to them using the double arrow which is usually down at the bottom of the menu page somewhere...

Thanks. Your second para clears it all up. I'm afraid that I've been too clever by half!

I assumed that Play arrow would take me to the Chapter screen first so I used the "Hide Object" command on the the main clip thumbnail on the assumption that it wouldn't be needed and to clear up clutter on the screen - a bad decision, obviously!

However, one question. Would the final user be expected to know that clicking on the thumbnail would take them them to any chapter menu? In fact, if I wanted to force the user to go through the Chapter screen might it be best to hide the Play arrow?

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

I do not use VS 11, but I think the options to be the same.

As you have created a slide show as a single Mpeg. (is this correct)

There is no reason to have the first single menu.
If the disc opens with the chapter menu, that would be ok.

You can disable the first menu page:-

Whilst creating the Menu / Chapters look for the ¡¥Advanced¡¦ button, here you can deselect the ¡¥add title menu¡¦

The disc will play accessing the chapter menu first.